Guest Post w/ Samantha Kane + giveaway (open INT)

Good morning dearlings! We've got a fantastically talented author joining us this morning with a lovely Christmas post. Samantha Kane's one of our local NC authors and writes some amazing historicals. Some a little more mainstream (but still pretty steamy) <----and then, whew, she also writes an historical erotica/menage series Brothers in Arms.----->

I'm handing things off to Ms Kane now so come check out her guest post and the awesome giveaway she's doing for an ebook of the winner's choice from her backlist! (ooohhh so jealous!).  

The Perfect Gifts

I’ve been thinking and thinking what I could write in a Christmas blog post that hasn’t already been said. Today I was out Christmas shopping, like half the Western world, searching for the perfect gifts for the people on my list, and I realized that it doesn’t matter if it’s been said before. Some things need to be said time and again.

There are lots of different kinds of gifts. There’s the I’ve-been-thinking-about-you gift, and the very simple Merry Christmas gift. Then there’s the you’re-important-to-me-even-if-I-don’t-see-or-talk-to-you-often gift. The gifts that say “I know you better than anyone else, and I know you will love this.” The ever-popular hostess gift for holiday parties, the handmade gift for special loved ones, the expensive gifts for those to whom those things are important. Teacher gifts, sweetheart gifts, friendship gifts. And we can wrap them all up in pretty paper and ribbons and during the much too short Christmas season we exchange them and kiss each other on the cheek and then wait until next year to do it all over again.

But in light of recent events I began to think about the gifts we give each other every day of the year. The intangible gifts: love, time, understanding, patience. I have received many of those intangible gifts from the romance community over the last couple of months as I moved and then fell headlong into holiday season preparations and had to be reminded of blog posts and marketing obligations. I took a long time to respond to emails, I’ve all but vanished from social media, and I’ve been unreliable. And yet friends and strangers alike have given me the gifts of time, patience and understanding, and I want them to know how much I appreciate those gifts, and them.

You see, I was in the middle of giving my children and husband one of those intangible gifts: a home. I’m a nester, you see. I can’t sleep if everything isn’t in its place. And I wanted our lives to continue as seamlessly as possible as we made a major change. So I unpacked boxes and hung pictures and put out Christmas decorations as fast as I could. They may not realize the gift for what it is, but I know that they are happy here in our new home, and already consider their private spaces as uniquely and definitively theirs. And I gave that to them.

They have given me priceless, intangible gifts as well. Their smiles and happy faces tell me that my gift is precious to them. And isn’t that what the spirit of giving is all about? In little ways we give to one another all year long. But the root of all our gifts—to one another, to family, to friends—is  love.

May you receive many gifts—intangible ones and ones wrapped in pretty paper and bows accompanied by yearly kisses—this holiday season. 

                                                         ~Samantha Kane

Samantha Kane lives in North Carolina with her husband of fifteen years and three children, two boys and one girl. She spent seven years as a high school history teacher before becoming a full time writer and mom. Ms. Kane has a Master's degree in American History. She loves to hear from readers, so please email her today.

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Samantha's giving away an ebook from her backlist to one lucky commenter!! How awesome is that? Thanks Samantha!!

So check out her guest post, leave her a nice comment and fill out that Rafflecopter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway